Porky in Wackyland
Porky in Wackyland is a 1938 animated short film, directed by Robert Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions as part of Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes series. In this film Porky Pig goes hunting through a Salvador Dalí-esque landscape to find theDo-Do Bird for a very large bounty. In 1994 it was voted #8 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field and in 2000 was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress, who has selected the short for preservation in the National Film Registry. Plot A newspaper shows Porky traveling to Africa to hunt the rare do-do bird, worth four trilliondollars. Porky uses his airplane to go to Dark Africa, then Darker Africa, and finally lands in Darkest Africa. When Porky lands, a sign tells him that he's in Wackyland ("Population: 100 nuts and a squirrel"), while a voice booms out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can%27t_Happen_Here "It can happen here!"]Porky tiptoes along the ground in his airplane and he is greeted by a roaring beast, who suddenly becomes effeminate and dances away into the forest. He watches as the sun is lifted above the horizon by a tower of stacked creatures. Nearby, another creature rises out of a tall flower, playing "The William Tell Overture", using his nose as a flute. The creature launches into a wild drum solo, which brings out many strange, weird, and oafish creatures, including a rabbit dangling in midair from a swing that seems to be threaded through its own ears, and an angry criminal imprisoned behind a free-floating barred window that he holds in his hands. As Porky tries to find the do-do, he is distracted by a duck singing "Mammy!", a horn-headed creature, and a conjoined cat and dog hybrid creature spinning around like a tornado. Finally, the do-do appears. Porky tries to catch it, but it plays tricks on him. The do-do pulls out a pencil and draws a door in mid-air, and instead of opening it and running through, reaches down and lifts up the bottom edge of the door like a curtain, darts underneath and lets it snap back into place for Porky to bump into. At another point, the do-do appears on the Warner Brothers shield logo and slingshots Porky into the ground. Porky is defeated when the do-do pulls a wall of bricks in the picture and lets him crash into it. At the end of the film, Porky triumphs when he disguises himself as a bearded paperboy, shouting "Extra! Extra! Porky captures do-do!", before hitting the bird with a mallet. Porky loudly proclaims that he has captured the last do-do. The do-do mockingly replies, "Yes, I'm really the last of the do-dos. Ain't I, fellas?". A multitude of do-dos appear, all agreeing. They howl, which allows the do-do to escape and stand on Porky's head. Humor The film is celebrated for its surreal humor, such as when Porky is chasing the bird, it disappears and suddenly the Warner Brothersshield emerges from the horizon's vanishing point, as it typically did at every cartoon's beginning, and complete with the standard stretched "boing" of the steel guitar. The Do-Do comes from behind the shield to bop Porky on the head and we see the shield immediately turn to return to the horizon with the bird riding it there (with, consequently, the boing sound played in reverse). The Do-Do character is much like the very early Daffy Duck in voice and mannerisms. Among the crazy characters Porky encounters is a creature with three heads arguing amongst themselves in gibberish talk. From the haircuts on the three heads, it is clear that this is a parody of The Three Stooges. The character then faces the camera and leans into it in such a way that their round heads form a triangle, and a small character explains to the audience that, "He says his mama was scared by a pawnbroker's sign!" At another point in the pan of the various denizens, a character with large glasses comes out of a pot and says, "Hello, Bobo." This refers to animator Robert Cannon, whose nickname was Bobo and wore big glasses. On the pot are the words "Treg's a Foo", referring to Treg Brown. ("Foo" is a nonsense word from the Smokey Stover comic strip, a big influence on this cartoon in terms of humor and visual style.) Characters *Porky Pig *Yoyo Dodo Category:Episodes Category:Looney Tunes Episodes Category:Short Category:Classic Shorts Category:Looney Tunes Short Category:Awarded Category:WB